GCLT’s lat­est pro­duc­tion prom­ises to be a pow­er­house of time­less en­ter­tain­ment with an en­dur­ing mes­sage for au­di­ences of all ages

Gold Coast Lit­tle The­atre is in fi­nal re­hearsals for its next pro­duc­tion, 70 Girls 70. It’s a story about some “older” res­i­dents of New York who come to re­alise they have to put some vim and vigour in their lives – even live a lit­tle dan­ger­ously – if they are go­ing to live longer. Tak­ing on the lead role of Ida, the woman who starts it all, is well-known mu­si­cal pow­er­house Anne Ryan. Also ap­pear­ing are Joel Be­skin, Jan Al­corn, Mar­i­lyn Culell, Noni Buck­land and Mar­lene Blight, as well as for­mer politi­cian Brett Ra­guse. Di­rected by Roger McKen­zie, 70 Girls 70 opens at GCLT on July 1 and runs Thurs­day to Sun­days un­til July 29. Mean­while, au­di­tions for the com­pany’s next pro­duc­tion, Lady Win­der­mere’s Fan di­rected by Rob Hor­ton, will be held at GCLT’s Molly’s on Sun­day, June 25 at 10am. To book an au­di­tion time call Rob on 0425 896 582. Yours truly is fresh from the fab­u­lous Ade­laide Cabaret Fes­ti­val, held an­nu­ally to present the best cabaret per­form­ers from Aus­tralia and over­seas. Run­ning for three week­ends, artis­tic direc­tors Ed­die Per­fect and Ali McGre­gor have this year gone for a more cut­ting-edge col­lec­tion of shows. Christie Whe­lan Browne do­ing her Steve Vizard-writ­ten show VIGIL, pre­sented a raw en­counter of a young girl re­turn­ing to her ill mother. Car­lotta, the dar­ling of Kings Cross, rocked the socks off ev­ery au­di­ence she had. The 3 Mika­dos, (Colin Lane, David Collins and Amy G) was a dis­ap­point­ment. I found the mini-mu­si­cal rid­dled with Ade­laide au­di­ence ref­er­ences, se­rial rep­e­ti­tion of gags and an over­run by 25 min­utes. The fes­ti­val con­tin­ues this week­end, so if you hap­pen to find your­self in Ade­laide there is lots on of­fer. The Friends of the Gold Coast Arts Cen­tre in­vite tal­ented young artists who are short of cash and hop­ing to progress their ca­reers to ap­ply for a grant from the Friends Gift Fund. Last year they gave a to­tal of $27,500 in grants to nine ap­pli­cants. The clos­ing date for this year’s ap­pli­ca­tions is July 29. Forms can be down­loaded from friend­soft­hearts­cen­tregc. com.au Au­di­tions are com­ing up for Tweed The­atre Com­pany’s pro­duc­tion of the pan­tomime Dick Whit­ting­ton and his Cat. There’s more in­for­ma­tion on their web­site. I am de­lighted to re­veal Top Hat Pro­duc­tions will present this year’s Mayor’s Se­niors Week shows – watch this space for the great line-up of stars ap­pear­ing on Au­gust 24 at the Arts Cen­tre Gold Coast. In re­hearsal on the Gold Coast now are GCLT’s 70 Girls 70, Ballina Play­ers’ Joseph & the Amaz­ing Tech­ni­color Dream­coat, Spot­light’s Nine to Five, Tweed The­atre’s Aus­tralia Day and Javeen­bah’s Billy Liar.